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Thursday, 11 October 2012

Bill Seeking To Impose Penalties On Oil Spills Passed Second Reading On The Floor Of The Senate

A bill seeking
to impose penalties on oil spills in the has passed through the
second reading on the floor of the senate.

Leading debate on the
Bill, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment Senator Bukola Saraki
noted that there is no law to compel multinational oil companies to pay
compensation on account of oil spills hence the need to amend the
National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) Act and strenghten
the agency to live up to its expectations.

He lamented that an estimated
13 million to 16 million barrels of oil has been spilled into the ecosystem
over the last 50 years.

Senator Saraki also
stressed that the proposed amendment would go a long way to help the National
Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency manage oil spill in a much robust
manner.

In his remarks the
Senate President Senator David Mark tasked regulating agencies to sit up
stressing that the problem of oil spills could be tackled if all the relevant
authorities are patriotic.